3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Tutorials Compiled By –
Aditya Agarwal
Rohit Arora
Nikhil Badwe

Compiled By -Aditya Agarwal , Nikhil Badwe & Rohit Arora

No license: PDF produced by PStill (c) F. Siegert - http://www.this.net/~frank/pstill.html

 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

3D Studio MAX Window

1. Menu bar
2. Command panels
3. Object categories
4. Rollout
5. Active viewport
6. Viewport navigation controls
7. Time controls
8. Snaps
9. Adaptive degradation override
10. Window/Crossing
11. Keyboard shortcut override toggle
12. Coordinate display
13. Status bar and Prompt line
14. MAXScript Mini Listener
15. Track bar
16. Time slider
17. Main toolbar
Most of the main window is occupied by the viewports, where you view and work with your scene. The
remaining areas of the window hold controls and show status information.

Menu Bar
A standard Windows menu bar with typical File, Edit, Views, and Help menus. Special menus include:
• Tools contains duplicates of many of the Main toolbar commands.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

• Group contains commands for managing grouped objects.

• Create contains commands for creating objects.
• Modifiers contains commands for modifying objects.
• Animation contains commands for animating and constraining objects.
• Graph Editors provides graphical access to editing objects and animation: Track View lets you
open and manage animation tracks in Track View windows, and Schematic View gives you an
alternate way to work with the objects in your scene and navigate to them.
• Rendering contains commands for rendering, Video Post, and the environment.
• Customize Menu gives you access to controls that let you customize the user interface.

Command Panels
These six panels hold most of the modeling and animation features. In 3ds max, you have the ability
to "tear off" the command panels and place them anywhere you like.
You can float or dismiss the command panels by right-clicking just above them. The default setting is
to display the Command panel docked at the right of your screen. If it is not displayed, or you want to
change its location and docking or floating status, right-click in a blank area on the tab panel, and
choose from the shortcut menu.
• Create holds all object creation tools.
• Modify holds modifiers and editing tools.
• Hierarchy holds linking and inverse kinematics parameters.
• Motion holds animation controllers and trajectories.
• Display holds object display controls.
• Utilities holds miscellaneous utilities.

Viewports
You can display from one to four viewports. These can show multiple views of the same geometry, as
well as the Track View, Schematic View, and other informational displays. Viewports Layout can be
changed by right clicking the viewport name in the viewport. Also one can use the following keys to
swtich between viewport easily.
P – Perspective
F – Front
T – Top
L – Left
R – Right
B – Bottom
K – Back

Press the G button to hide the Grid.

Viewport Navigation buttons

The button cluster at the lower-right of the main window contains controls for zooming, panning, and
navigating within the viewports.

The navigation controls depend on the active viewport. Perspective, orthographic, camera, and light
viewports all have specialized controls. Orthographic includes User viewports as well as viewports like
Top, Front, and so on.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Perspective and Orthographic Viewport Controls

Zoom
Zoom All
Zoom Extents/Zoom Extents Selected
Zoom Extents All/Zoom Extents All Selected
Field-of-View (Perspective) or Region Zoom
Pan
Arc Rotate/Arc Rotate on Selection/Arc Rotate Sub-Object
Min/Max Toggle

Viewport Animation Controls

All viewports display the following animation and time controls.
Animation Controls

Animate Button
Go to Start
Previous Frame
Play/Stop
Next Frame
Go to End

Status Bar Controls

The 3ds max window contains an area at the bottom for prompt and status information about your
scene and the active command. It also has button controls for locking selections, for snap and grid
settings, and for display degradation.
The controls for time tags and plug-in keyboard shortcuts are also located in this part of the interface.
There is a coordinate display area that you can type values into and on the left, a two-line interface to
the MAXScript Listener.

Tab Panel

Note: In 3ds max 4, the tab panel is hidden by default. To display the tab panel, right click on the
main toolbar and select Tab Panel from the pop-up dialog.
The tab panel is a row of tabbed toolbars located directly below the menu bar at the top of the 3ds
max window. The tabs offer quick access to most of the tools available in the command panel, as well
as many of the items found in the menus. Each tab on the tab panel can become a separate floating
toolbar that can be resized, or docked at the sides or bottom of the 3ds max interface.
The tab panel includes the following toolbars. Right-click any tab label to display the Tab Right-Click
menu.
Objects: Contains buttons for Standard Primitives and Extended Primitives, Patch Grids, and NURBS
Surfaces.
Shapes: Contains buttons for Shapes and NURBS curves.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Lights & Cameras: Contains buttons for Lights and light related scripts, as well as Cameras.
Compounds: Contains buttons for all Compound Objects.
Particles: Contains buttons for particle systems and space warps that affect particle systems.
Helpers: Contains buttons for standard helpers, atmospheric gizmos, and camera match helpers.
Space Warps: Contains buttons for many space warps.
Modifiers: Contains buttons for many modifiers.
Modeling: Contains buttons for tools for modeling.
Rendering: Contains buttons for rendering related features.

Lofting

Lofting is an important method for 3D object creation. You create shape objects to serve as a path
and any number of cross-sectional shapes. The path becomes the framework that holds the cross-
sections forming your object.
Once you create a loft object you can change and animate its parameters and sub-objects:
• Add and replace cross-section shapes or replace the path.
• Change or animate the parameters of the path and shapes.
• Change or animate the surface parameters of the loft object.
The lofting process first requires that you create shape objects to serve as the path and cross-
sections of your loft object.
The term lofting comes from early shipbuilding. A large framework called a loft was built to hold the
hull of a ship while it was assembled. The process of hoisting the ribs (cross-sections) of the hull into
the loft became known as lofting.
A traditional method for building three-dimensional models of a modern vehicle design is to draw
cross-sections at a number of key points. These cross-sections are cut out to form two-dimensional
templates that are then placed on a rail. The model builders fill in the space between the templates to
generate the surface of the model.

You create loft objects in 3ds max using a similar process. You first create two or more spline objects.
One of these splines will be the rail, which is referred to as the path. The rest of the splines are the
cross-sections of your object, which are called shapes. As you arrange your shapes along the path,
the software generates a surface between the shapes.

Compiled By -Aditya Agarwal , Nikhil Badwe & Rohit Arora

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Banana
1. Using the Shapes>Splines section make a curve using arc tool and a Ngon as show in the figure
below in the TOP viewport:

2. Select the arc and goto the Compound Objects in the Geometry Section and click the Loft
Button.On clicking you will see in command rollout the Creation Method where you select
the Get Shape button and then select the Ngon.You will see something like below.

3. Now with the lofted object selected goto the Modifiers panel.In there scroll down to
Deformations in the rollout and in there select the Scale button.You will see a window pop up
onto your screen.Add more corner points by using Insert Corner Points button

Now move the corner points to get final view as below

4. You will get a shape similar to a banana in you perspective view.

5. Then apply some materail to make you banana look like a real one.

Compiled By -Aditya Agarwal , Nikhil Badwe & Rohit Arora

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Compiled By -Aditya Agarwal , Nikhil Badwe & Rohit Arora

No license: PDF produced by PStill (c) F. Siegert - http://www.this.net/~frank/pstill.html

 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Post Box
Step 1:
Create a cylinder and apply red color to it.

Step 2:
Create torus of black color to make the box appear realistic.

Step 3:
Create Hemisphere using the spere tool.There is a option for hemisphere. Set the value to 0.5.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Step 4:
Create Prism of black color and place it on the position near the top of cylinder.
And you have you final post box created.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

House
To make a house we would first make the lower part of the house and then put a roof
over the base.
1. First got to “CREATE” menu and then to “STANDARD PRIMITIVES” and create a “BOX” with
the following dimensions (Length=50,Width=110,Height=60).Make the length segments =
6,Width segments=6,height segments=6.

2.Now go to “RENDERING” and then press “MATERIAL EDITOR”. Make sure the box is selected
and then press “ASSIGN MATERIAL TO SELECTION”. Press the tab besides the “DIFFUSE”
color box. Under the menu listed select the “BRICKS” parameter and then press “OK”. Then press
“SHOW MAP ON VIEWPORT” .The selected object is covered with “BRICKS”.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

3.To make a door go to “MODIFY” tab. Go to “EDIT MESH”. Select the

“POLGON” sub-object. In the “FRONT VIEW” holding down the control key on
the keyboard select the central 6 faces and then check “IGNORE BACK
FACING”. Again go to “MODIFIER LIST” and click “DELETE MESH”. You will
see a hole.

4.Now we would make the roof. Create a “BOX” with the following dimensions
(Length=120,Width=60,Height=60). Make the length segments = 1,Width segments=1,height
segments=1). Right click on the box and click “CONVERT TO” and then click “EDITABLE MESH”.
Again right click, and on the left hand sub-menu click “CHAMFER EDGE”. Click on the top-front
edge and then by holding the left mouse button drag it to the bottom edge.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Repeat the same procedure for the opposite surface.

5.Now place the roof on the base. Select the roof and right click. Click “CONVERT TO” and then click
“CONVERT TO EDITABLE MESH”. In the menu listing on the lower right of the screen scroll down to
find “ATTACH” and then click the base. Go to “EDIT” sub menu and press “SELECT ALL”. Go to
“GROUP” sub menu and press “GROUP” and click “OK”. Your house is ready……………

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Compiled By -Aditya Agarwal , Nikhil Badwe & Rohit Arora

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Wooden Barrel
1. In the create panel create a line in a shape of a "L" in the front view.

2. In the Modify panel apply a Edit Spline modifier to the line we just created.
Select all the bottom vertexes in the front view and move them a bit in the x axis
towards the right. Now select the upper vertex and right click with the mouse.
Choose Bezier from the pull down menu.
3. Now play around with them to create a spline like the one bellow by moving the
vertex's green boxes. Try not to disturb the bottom horizontal lines since they are
the base of the object.

4. While still having the spline selected apply a Lathe modifier. The Degrees
should be set to 360 and you may need to click one of the Align buttons. Clicked the
Max button.
5. Open up Material Editor and set the Defuse to Bitmap. [CEDEFENCE.JPG] VW
Coordinates

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

7. In the top view create a Torus around the barrel. Copy the Toruses and position
them as in the image bellow. For the each sets of 2 in the middle don't change their
settings so that they have the same radiuses, but for the top and base one adjust
them to fit on the barrel.

8. Again go the the Material Editor and select a new material. [Metal>STEELPLT]

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Couch
Step 1: Making the Charmfer Box :
Click on Charmfer Box and make it look as seen in this pic bellow. It dont matter much how big you
make it but you can see the parameters of this model in the pic bellow.

Step 2 : Making the cut :

Ok in this part we will be cutting the shape of the couch in to the Charmfer Box to do this Clone the
Charmfer Box and scale it down and place it in the biger box as seen in the pic bellow.

Now that you have your new box placed inside the other in the place you whould like it, lets make the
cut. To make the cut this is the steps you need to do: click on the bigger box (the bottom 1) now click
on the Compunds Tab now select Boolean Compund Object now hit Pick Operand B now that you
have done that move your mouse over to the top box inserted in to your couch and click on it. You

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

should now see the cut made in the mane part of you chouch. Your couch should now look like this.

Step 3 : Making Couch cushion:

This is The EZ part just make Charmfer Boxes for the seat cushion as seen in this next pic.

Step 4 : Making the armrest cushions:

To do this just make a Charmfercyl and adjust the size as needed as seen in this pic.

Step 6 :
Now all you need to do is add the legs and your all done & you have your chouch textured.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Strawberry
1. In any of the view ports create a sphere of radius 30.0.

2. keep the object selected and go to “modify tab” in the command panel. In the “modifier list”
select the option “Taper”. In the parameters fill the amount of tapering as 0.8. in the taper axis select
“Y” as primary axis and select “XZ” in the effect radio button. The figure should appear in the way
given below.

3. Now to apply the material go to rendering menu and click on “material editor” (or press M on the
keyboard). In this window in the “Blinn basic parameters” click on the square button which lies in front
of the gray rectangle near diffuse option.

Now click on the “bitmap” option and say “ok”. In the window which opens browse and go to
“3dsmax4/maps/organics”. Now click on “StrawBryTxt.jpg” and say “open”.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

this is the botton

4. Now the window should look like this :

5. Now click on “Assign material to selection” button : and then click on “Show map in view
port” . You can see that the material has been applied.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

6. To create leaf go to create tab. Click on cylinder and then click on “autogrid” and in the “top view”
port create a cylinder of height 0.0. it should resemble the figure given below.

7. Now keep the cylinder selected and go to modifier list. In the list select “edit mesh. In the selection
parameters click on ”vertex”. Now blue coloured vertices can be seen on the surface oh the leaf. Select
some of the vertices (they will turn red) and move them using “move” tool to give unevenness to the
leaf.

8. Now go to create tab and add a thin cylinder over the leaf as stem. Go to modify tab and apply “bend”
modifier. Specify the angle in the angle parameter.

THE STRWBERRY IS READY………………

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Glass
1. To create a simple glass we take the help of “Lathe tool”. Maximize the front view-port using
“Min/Max Toggle” button which is on the right hand bottom of
the window.

2. In the create tab go to “shapes” and select “Line” to draw the following diagram in the front view as
follows. To draw the lines click at respective positions (do not drag the mouse).

3. At the end it will ask you to close the spline. Say “Yes”.

4. Go to “Modify” tab and select “Lathe”. Now you will get a figure as shown below

5. Now in the “align” parameters given below click on the button”Max” so the you will get a figure
which resembles the one given below.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

6. To apply material to the glass go to “material editor” click on the button “Standard”. In the window
which opens keep the “Mtl Library” radio button checked.

7. click on the button “open”. Select “Metal” directory and in that apply material “Metal_Chrome
(standard)”. Now you can render the glass. Before rendering make sure that your perspective view-port
is selected. After rendering the glass should look like :

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Text
1. This tutorial will make you familiar with text tool. Go to “Create” tab in the command panel and click
on “shapes” . In the object type roll out select “text”. In the parameter roll out in the text field type
whatever text you want to write and change different parameters such as font , size according to your
needs.

2. Click in the middle of the front view port and then click on the “zoom extends all” button to fit it
properly in the view port. Now go to modify tab and in the modifier list select “Extrude”. In the in the
parameter rollout change amount to 15.0. The difference in the width can be seen in the top and left
view port. Your perspective view should appear as follows :

3. Now an animation effect can be added. Select top view port and click the “Animate” button. It will
turn “red “. Make sure that the scroll bar is at frame position 0.

4. Drag scroll bar of animate button to position “25” and rotate text about z-axis as shown :

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

5. Now again drag scroll bar to position “50” and rotate it the other way round. Then go to position “75”
and rotate it again and at the end in the 100th frame bring it back to original position. The scroll bar
should look like :

6. Now turn off the animate button and select perspective view port and “play” the animation using
animation control buttons :

7. To make an .avi file you must render it. Go to rendering menu select render. In the “Time Output” roll
out “range” radio button should be checked. In the render output roll out click files and give name as
“text.avi” and save it. In the video compression box click ok.

8. Now click on “Render” button. The rendering process starts here .This process takes significant amount
of time (10 minutes to 2 hours depending upon your computer specifications) but for small animation
like this one it should not take a lot of time.
9. Your avi file is ready. You can view it using windows media player or any other player of your choice.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Particle Systems & Space Wraps

1. In this part we will create a rain effect by using spray and wind.
2. Create a spray object in your Top viewport. Different ways to reach the spray
object are as follows :
Create panel > Geometry button > Choose Particle Systems from the drop-
down list. > Object Type rollout > Spray

Create menu > Particles > Spray

Tab panels > Particles tab > Spray Particle System

3. Move & Rotate the spray such that the perspective viewport shows a image as
shown below :

4. This shows that the spray particles will come down. To check this out select the
perspective viewport and click the Play Animation button in the animation control
section.

5. Now we will add some wind so that it appears that the rain is slanting.
Add wind from the Space Wraps > Forces section.

6. You will see a arrow which points to the direction of the wind and a rectangle to
denote the area affected by the wind. Use the move and rotate tool and place the
wind such that the wind will affect the spray.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

7. A very important part left is to Bind the spray and the wind together so that the
wind will affect the associated object. Select the spray and click the Bind to
Space Wrap button on the Main Toolbar. Now click the Select by name button
and select the Wind01 and press the Bind button.

8. That’s it you are now done. To see what you have made click the Play Animation
button. You can reduce the strength of the wind.

9. The particle system used here was spray and the space wrap used was wind.
You can try different particle systems like snow and different space wraps like
gravity.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

Bomb
1. Create sphere with 64 segments.
2. Create a Bomb object from the Space Wraps Geometric/Deformable section.
Place this bomb in the front viewport in the lower right side of the sphere and
increase the Chaos property of the bomb to 2.5.

3. Now Bind the sphere to the Bomb as you have binded the Spray to the Wind in
the previous section.
4. Play the Animation to see the Bomb explode the objects binded to it.

5. We increased the segments of the sphere so that it explodes in more parts and
we increase the chaos to make the exploded particles fly in random direction.

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 3D STUDIO MAX TUTORIALS

FIRE
1.To create the fire effect, go to “HELPERS” tab. In the drop down list below select “
ATMOSPHERIC APPARATUS”. Select “SPHERE GIZMO” and draw a gizmo in the
front view of size 100.
2.Select the “PERSPECTIVE” view. Go to “MODIFY” tab and in the lower half of the screen scroll
down and press “ADD”. In the pop up menu press “FIRE EFFECT”. In the text area select the fire
effect. Click “SET UP”. In the Pop up window select the fire effect.

3.Go to “RENDERING” and press “RENDER”.

The Fire effect can be seen….

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